During the 2008 campaign, Mr. Reid repeatedly taunted Senator John McCain of Arizona, the Republican nominee, saying he should show leadership. He told a Las Vegas newspaper, “I can’t stand John McCain.”…

Mr. Reid called Senator Bill Frist, the Republican leader from 2003 to 2007, “amateurish,” and said in 2007 that Gen. Peter Pace, then the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was “incompetent.” Mr. Reid once said that Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve, was “one of the biggest political hacks we have in Washington.”

On top of that, his aides say, Reid genuinely believes his source — an old friend and longtime investor at Romney’s former company Bain Capital — who told the Senate majority leader a couple months back that the GOP nominee didn’t pay taxes for at least a decade…

“What’s the downside? Jon Stewart getting all serious and haughty? Harry Reid could not care less,” said one Reid confidante. “There is no one in politics with a thicker skin. He’s having the last laugh. Reid’s strategy is working. It’s filling news holes and driving conversations.”…

Asked if the Obama campaign agreed with Reid’s comments, Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt said: “Reflecting the growing number of questions Americans have about Mitt Romney’s finances, Sen. Reid rightfully pointed out that Gov. Romney has something to hide.”

***

According to a source familiar with Reid’s thinking, the majority leader, a former boxer, considers himself a political street fighter now, willing to throw a punch and get hit back big time for a cause. In this case, the cause is making sure the topic of Romney’s tax returns remains in the news, and in the campaign narrative.

The source said Reid is “happy to mix it up and put this back in the news” and added the “finger waggers of the Acela corridor won’t dissuade him from speaking his mind.”

Reid, the source said, is unconcerned about the hits he is taking on making unsubstantiated claims, because the Democratic base is fired up…

“I’ve known Sen. Reid for many, many years, and occasionally he displays some rather erratic behavior,” McCain said on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360.” “To accuse someone of doing something without a shred of proof–that the allegation has any substance–is really something I, frankly, don’t understand.”

***

“I’m not sure what that line is for him. He keeps moving it further and further,” Ralston said when asked whether Reid crossed the line of propriety. “There are two sides to Reid. He says some intemperate things and he’s not very polished with the media. Then there’s the other side of Reid that is incredibly calculating. He has a goal in mind and he’s sticking fast to it.”…

“It’s absolutely constructive and a very important role not only for getting Obama’s back but also for America,” said Charles Chamberlain, executive director of Progressive Congress. “What frustrates me is Reid seems to be the only one. I’d like to see more senators, more surrogates and more Republicans call out Romney for not doing what other candidates have done, release their tax returns. Thank God for Harry Reid.”…

Thomas F. Schaller, a political science professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, said Republicans cannot blame Reid because they did not condemn attacks against Sen. John Kerry’s (D-Mass.) war record during the 2004 presidential campaign.

“Mitch McConnell and the Republican crowd weren’t saying the Republican attack on John Kerry was beyond the pale. If that’s not offside, this isn’t offside,” he said. “For years Democrats were criticized for not being tough enough and when they get tough they get criticized for being over the line.”

***

Spew first and sweat the details later, or never. Speak loosely and carry a stick-thin collection of backup materials, or none at all. That’s the M.O. of the moment, familiar from the past but in particularly galling and profuse flower of late.

It has spread beyond the practiced rabble-rousers of the far right, and Democrats are exuberantly getting in on this unbecoming, corrosive game. For many years they bemoaned an unfair fight: Republicans were by and large willing to play faster, looser and flat-out nastier than they were. Is there as much credibility to that lament today?…

DO one tribe’s antics justify the other’s? Is this a road we really want to continue barreling down? We’re already on it, thanks in part to a presidential contest in which each candidate’s main pitch — I’m not half as awful as the other guy — points everything in a negative direction.

***

Reid signaled Friday that he’s not relenting in his attacks. He accused Romney of being “the most secretive presidential candidate since Richard Nixon” and pointed out that even nominees overseen by the Senate Finance Committee have to produce more tax returns that Romney is willing to release.

“Forget about president — Mitt Romney couldn’t get confirmed as a cabinet secretary,” Reid said. “The contents of the one year of returns he has released would probably be enough to tank his nomination anyway: secret overseas bank accounts in Switzerland and the Cayman Islands, tax avoidance tricks and a lower tax rate than middle-class families pay.”

***

MARTIN: And that’s politics. The bottom line is if the shoe was reversed, I guarantee –

PONNURU: So why are you playing it Roland?

MARTIN: — you the “National Review” and the GOP would be all over the Democrats saying release your taxes and you know it.

PONNURU: The “National Review” said that Romney should release his taxes.

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During the one ceremony when the entire team received the team gold she didn’t sing, (4 of the other girls didn’t sing in this ceremony either) but she certainly did have her little hand over her heart. Starts at 2:52 and it shows very clearly.

Surely you must have thought about this, so what are your thoughts as to why he has failed to release them?

cynccook on August 5, 2012 at 12:08 AM

As I have said numerous times here, I don’t give a phuck what Obama’s grades were in college. I don’t give a phuck if Romney beat up some kid in college for being a nerd. What I do care about is if a “potential” president is evading taxes. A billionaire evading taxes is an automatic tax increase for the middle class.

You show me any evidence Obama evaded taxes and I will be on him like white on rice.

I’d call intentionally bankrupting energy producers, allowing the current tax policy to revert to a higher tax burden, and the implementation of ObamaTax aka Affordable Care Act to be a trifecta of death to the middle class.

Surely she gets at least the same training on interviews and the like that Division 1 athletes get so she was likely coached on what to do but I think she went “off script” when interviewed right after her win when she thanked G-d & gave the glory to him.

The lefties are accusing her of “Tebowing” the Olympics.

I wonder if she got scolded behind the scenes for her genuine religious response to winning & lost focus on what to do on the stand.

As I have said numerous times here, I don’t give a phuck what Obama’s grades were in college. I don’t give a phuck if Romney beat up some kid in college for being a nerd. What I do care about is if a “potential” president is evading taxes. A billionaire evading taxes is an automatic tax increase for the middle class.

You show me any evidence Obama evaded taxes and I will be on him like white on rice.

Uppereastside on August 5, 2012 at 12:23 AM

Oh. So you really haven’t given it any thought. Why am I not surprised by that? And you really think that somehow Romney was able to fool the IRS for a decade, just because they don’t pay any sort of extra attention to a billionaire’s tax returns? Hmmmm. Sure. That makes plenty of sense. And of course there’s no way that due to the extra attention this subject has garnered lately that anyone at the IRS would have been motivated to re-visit those returns at any time during the last 7 months, right? Or, maybe they have and they have found that Romney ‘evaded’ paying the taxes he was due to pay, but they’ve decided to give him a pass, because that’s just how nice they are there at the IRS? Got it.

TXUS on August 4, 2012 at 11:59 PM
Surely she gets at least the same training on interviews and the like that Division 1 athletes get so she was likely coached on what to do but I think she went “off script” when interviewed right after her win when she thanked G-d & gave the glory to him.

The lefties are accusing her of “Tebowing” the Olympics.

I wonder if she got scolded behind the scenes for her genuine religious response to winning & lost focus on what to do on the stand.

Here’s a video from her church with her, you can see in the responses the lefties are finding it & attacking.

A billionaire evading taxes is an automatic tax increase for the middle class.

1. Romney is not a billionaire.

2. If Romney evaded taxes, then Reid should present his evidence to Eric Holder and the AG should convene a grand jury or have the tax cheat, Timmy Geithner, do it at the Treasury since the IRS is under his purview.

3. Reid says that he hasn’t paid taxes in 10 years. That’s a lie. If he will lie about something that is so easily disproven, why would you trust him about anything else?

5. If Obama wins a second term, undoubtedly you will support the nomination of Senator John F Kerry to be the next Secretary of State. There is also little doubt that you didn’t really see a problem when Senator Kerry, who is much wealthier than Mitt Romney, parked his $7 million, custom-made yacht, whose construction he outsourced to a New Zealand boat company, in Rhode Island to avoid paying over $500,000 in taxes. I bet that you even voted for Senator Kerry.

Perhaps, Mitt Romney should have done what John Kerry did. File separately from his wife. He could have put everything in Anne’s name and she could have done a Teresa. “I will only show you the first two pages of last year’s return. That’s it. I am not running for office.”

Isn’t the girl who was singing the one who was left out of the all around?

Thanks for the link.

gophergirl on August 5, 2012 at 12:31 AM

Yup, that’s Jordan Weiber. Really tough that call!

You’re welcome, I saw the ceremony live,( or what passes for that on NBC) I was so excited for the US team and thrilled for the girls, and I remembered clearly ,for that ceremony, that Gabby did place her hand on her heart – I was so proud that they all did, so I was puzzled that TXUS said that.

The full committee panel did not agree whether tax law had been violated and left that issue up to the IRS. In 1999, the IRS cleared the organizations connected with the “Renewing American Civilization” courses under investigation for possible tax violations.

It started with Ed Meese. When he was Attorney General, the democrat House appointed an independent counsel for a political witchhunt against the Reagan administration. After the independent counsel found nothing after years of investigation, congress had to change the independent counsel law to allow those who were investigated for purely political reasons, with no basis in fact, to recover their expenses for defending themselves.

This sort of crap is what the democratics always do. They know they can’t win on their record, so they always do this sort of crap.

Ah still doooh, Mister Di–er, when Momma lets me. She tole me once, though, “Forrest, tennis is played on courts, and anyone who asks you to play it on a table is a sick, sick person.” Momma was right, but I was able hit that little soft ball real good on that table. Then I learnt that people didn’t call it table tennis anymore. They called it a funny name, Ping Pong, and after that Momma let me play.

A billionaire evading taxes is an automatic tax increase for the middle class.

You show me any evidence Obama evaded taxes and I will be on him like white on rice.

Uppereastside on August 5, 2012 at 12:23 AM

“Evaded” or avoided?

from Judge Learned Hand

“Anyone may arrange his affairs so that his taxes shall be as low as
possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which best pays the
treasury. There is not even a patriotic duty to increase one’s taxes.
Over and over again the Courts have said that there is nothing sinister
in so arranging affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible. Everyone
does it, rich and poor alike and all do right, for nobody owes any
public duty to pay more than the law demands.”

And, Judge L.Hand may have been speaking of obama when he said,
“A self-made man may prefer a self-made name.”